June 05, 2011

The Rite (2011): C-

An Exorcist-style redux about belief in the face of Satanic possession, The Rite (supposedly based on true events) parades about with a self-seriousness at odds with a second-half dominated by veiny-faced, limb-contorting special effects and screaming, screaming, screaming. Determined not to follow in the footsteps of his mortician father (Rutger Hauer), Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) flees to the seminary, though his lack of faith remains so troubling that Father Matthew (Toby Jones) – after threatening to blackmail Michael into maintaining his path to priesthood – sends him to Italy to train to be an exorcist, a position which the Catholic Church now feels is vitally important. There, Michael is ordered to spend time with Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), an aged man of the cloth who confesses to his own sporadic spiritual doubts even as he continues his work liberating people from demonic control. Michael’s skepticism runs so rampant that even after receiving definitive proof of the devil’s existence via a ceremony to save a pregnant young girl, he maintains incredulity, a perspective that’s laughably encouraged by director Mikael Håfström’s treatment of these early passages, which are obvious set-ups for a literal hells-a-popping finale. Shot nicely yet lacking any suspense (of the supernatural or crisis-of-piety kind), The Rite very slowly arrives at its ultimate confrontation between Michael’s uncertainty and the Devil’s trickster evil, but the only minor revelation in this bit of religious hokum is the silly sight of Hopkins’ Lucas, in thrall to Beelzebub, slapping the living daylights out of a very young girl.